In May 2026 two orca (killer whales) were killed in commercial set nets off the New Zealand coast — the first recorded deaths of orca in set nets in this country. What turned a rare wildlife tragedy into a political storm was the response of Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones: he called the footage proof the system was "working perfectly well", said he "didn't want to be burdened by the imagery", and remarked that "unfortunately, I thought orca were intelligent beings" — all while championing a bill to lock the very camera footage that caught the deaths away from the public. The episode has become a fight about empathy, transparency, and whether New Zealand's "100% Pure" image matches how it treats a species it lists as nationally critical.

The Policy: NZ First Oceans and Fisheries Policy — May 2026 →

What's happening:

• Two orca died in two separate set-net bycatch incidents in May 2026 — one off the Kaikōura coast inside the Te Rohe o Te Whānau Puha (Kaikōura) Whale Sanctuary, the other near Gisborne off Tairāwhiti. Officials confirmed these were a New Zealand first; the deaths became public only when Minister Jones disclosed them at a select committee on 18 June 2026.
• But aren't set nets banned in a whale sanctuary? No — and that catches most people out. Despite the name, the whale sanctuary only restricts seismic surveying and most seabed mining; it does not restrict commercial fishing. Fisheries NZ's Emma Taylor confirmed fishing "was not restricted in the sanctuary". A separate set-net closure does cover the inshore Kaikōura Marine Area, but it is aimed at recreational fishing — so the commercial set net that killed the Kaikōura orca was operating entirely lawfully. Conservation groups argue the gap between a "sanctuary" in name and what it actually protects is the real problem.
• New Zealand's coastal orca population is small and fragile: an estimated 150–200 animals, classified "nationally critical" under the NZ Threat Classification System — so even two deaths matter at a population level. Fisheries NZ says such fisher–orca interactions are "extremely rare".
• One death was captured by an on-board camera. Cameras have been rolled out to up to 300 inshore vessels — about 85% of the inshore catch by volume, at a cost of roughly $68 million over four years, covering set-net boats of 8 metres or more.
• The Minister's response drew the anger. Jones told the select committee the footage showed the monitoring system "working perfectly well" and that the fisher "followed the rules". He said he "didn't want to be burdened by the imagery" — he had not watched it — and remarked "unfortunately, I thought orca were intelligent beings", adding it was "not a happy outcome for the whale, but these things happen". He also suggested the orca "may have already been dead" before being netted, though officials said that could not be confirmed and corrected him that two orca had died, not one. Stuff reported the remarks under the headline "Jones blames netting deaths on orca".

The fight over the footage:

• The deaths landed in the middle of Jones's Fisheries Amendment Bill, introduced on 18 March 2026, which would exempt all on-board camera footage from the Official Information Act and create a $50,000 fine for leaking it.
• Jones overrode official advice to set that penalty: the Ministry of Justice recommended $5,000–$10,000 (in line with the Privacy Act) and called $50,000 "unreasonable". Jones likened leaking footage to "a capital crime" and said the footage was "designed to demonise and stigmatise the commercial fishing industry".
• The Chief Ombudsman, John Allen, opposed the blanket OIA exemption (letter 17 March 2026), saying the existing law already lets agencies withhold footage where genuinely necessary and the bill goes further than needed.
• Around 18 OIA requests for footage have been made since cameras were introduced — all declined — and RNZ has filed its own request for the orca footage. The bill drew roughly 25,000 submissions; after backlash Jones paused it for "panel beating" and dropped a separate plan to scrap minimum fish-size limits.
• A contradiction inside the government. The same coalition runs a Ministry for Regulation under David Seymour — created in 2024 to "slash red tape" and lift the quality of new laws — and passed a Regulatory Standards Act to discipline new rule-making. Jones himself is the face of the Fast-track Approvals Act and its "bulldozer through red and green tape" pitch (famously "goodbye, Freddy" to a rare native frog). Yet this bill *adds* secrecy and steep penalties — over Ministry of Justice and Ombudsman objections — and is now being slowed for "panel beating": the opposite of the speed-and-lighter-regulation the government sells. We dig into this across government in The red-tape agenda.

The bigger picture — a test of "100% Pure":

• New Zealand markets itself to the world as "100% Pure New Zealand" — Tourism NZ's clean-green brand since 1999. Critics have long argued the brand outruns the reality: ecologist Mike Joy's challenge to the claim went global via a 2012 New York Times piece and put then-PM John Key on the back foot on the BBC, and The Guardian called NZ "a friend to Middle Earth, but no friend of the Earth".
• The government itself has conceded the limits of the slogan — then-Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis said in 2018 it is "a successful marketing strategy… not an environmental standard".
• A minister publicly shrugging off the death of an endangered native orca — and moving to hide the evidence — is the kind of moment that draws international attention to that gap between brand and behaviour, with potential flow-on to tourism (one of New Zealand's largest export earners) and to export markets that increasingly weigh sustainability and animal welfare.

Where the parties stand:

• Shane Jones (NZ First, Oceans and Fisheries Minister) framed the camera capture as a system success, called it "a very odd and unfortunate incident", and is pressing the footage-secrecy bill — while directing Fisheries NZ to seek international expert advice and work with industry and the Department of Conservation on tools to reduce orca bycatch risk. He has not proposed a set-net ban. His government's broader withdrawal from international climate commitments signals NZ First's wider scepticism of conservation-driven constraints on resource use.
• Fisheries NZ (Emma Taylor, fisheries management director) said the interactions were "extremely rare", confirmed fishing was not restricted inside the whale sanctuary, and said officials had requested international advice on reducing orca bycatch.
• Rachel Boyack (Labour, oceans and fisheries spokesperson) called the deaths "devastating", noted Labour introduced the on-board camera programme, and criticised moves to restrict release of footage under the Official Information Act.
• The Green Party oceans spokesperson called Jones "nothing more than a puppet for private interest, parroting industry talking points while allowing our oceans to be exploited and abused for short-term profit".
• Conservation advocates — Forest & Bird's Zero Bycatch campaign and the Endangered Species Foundation, which opposes the Fisheries Amendment Bill — argue set nets and trawling kill protected marine species and that footage transparency is essential to public trust, pressing for stronger limits including set-net restrictions inside the sanctuary.
• The episode overlaps the government's contested freshwater and environmental rule changes, with critics linking it to a wider loosening of environmental oversight.

What to watch:

• The fate of the paused Fisheries Amendment Bill — whether the OIA exemption and $50,000 fine survive, given the Ombudsman's opposition and ~25,000 submissions.
• Whether the orca footage is released (RNZ's request) or stays sealed.
• Whether Fisheries NZ's international-advice process produces concrete set-net rules (gear changes, area restrictions near the sanctuary) or stays advisory.
• Whether further orca or other protected-species bycatch is detected now cameras cover most inshore catch.
• Whether the episode dents New Zealand's clean-green brand internationally, or becomes an election-cycle issue.

_Neutrality note: positions here are attributed to named people and organisations, and the analysis is grounded in the sourced record. The "100% Pure" comparison reflects a long-running public debate, not our own verdict; this entry takes no side on whether the Minister's response or the bill is right._